


And I Pour my Heart A New Foundation  (But it don't set hard, it just stays shaking)

by Everyus4



Category: Teen Wolf (TV), teen wolf - Fandom
Genre: Body Horror, Corey Bryant gets character development, Derek Hale & Theo Raeken Friendship, F/M, Good Friend Corey Bryant, Good Friend Mason Hewitt, Hurt Theo Raeken, I will die on that hill, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Isaac Lahey & Stiles Stilinski Friendship, Liam Dunbar is Theo Raeken's Anchor, Liam Dunbar is a sweetheart, M/M, Past Child Abuse, Past Liam Dunbar/Hayden Romero, Post-Nogitsune Stiles Stilinski, Protective Liam Dunbar, Protective Scott McCall (Teen Wolf), Smoking, So does Mason, Swearing, The Dread Doctors, Theo Raeken Needs a Hug, Theo Raeken is Liam Dunbar's Anchor, Theo Raeken is a Softie, Theo is a Little Shit, i will also die on the hill that all of these kids have trauma, surgery descriptions
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-17
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:00:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24226999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Everyus4/pseuds/Everyus4
Summary: Theo was NOT a pack mom. No matter what Liam, Mason, and Corey would have you believe. He was not a ‘mom friend’ in any sense of the term, sure he was cautious, he wanted his friends to be taken care of and for them to be safe and if he had to make sure of it himself so be it. But he was absolutely not a mom. He wasn’t soft, he wasn’t particularly caring, or gentle, and he certainly wasn’t tender or any of the other things he sees written on mother’s day cards (so what, his mom wasn’t the greatest and the cards were all he had to go off, sue him). So, no Theo was decidedly not the ‘Mom friend’, he wasn’t even really sure where that rumour had come from, (maybe it had something to do with the witches).in other words, the story of Theo's continued redemption, his relationship with the pack, and the growth they all have together along the way, oh and there's some supernatural nonsense too
Relationships: Corey Bryant & Liam Dunbar, Corey Bryant & Theo Raeken, Corey Bryant/Mason Hewitt, Isaac Lahey/Scott McCall, Liam Dunbar & Hayden Romero, Liam Dunbar & Mason Hewitt, Liam Dunbar/Theo Raeken, Mason Hewitt & Theo Raeken, Scott McCall & Stiles Stilinski
Comments: 8
Kudos: 102





	1. O my Heart

**Author's Note:**

> Okay hi, this is only my second ever teen wolf fic, and it's the first on this account.  
> this chapter is short, but the next ones are gonna be alot longer, this also will probably lead into a small series but we'll see i guess  
> hope you enjoy  
> kudos and comments welcomed and appreciated always

It had been a cold night, when wasn’t it a cold night when supernatural nonsense needed to be taken care of. He, Liam and the other young pack members in Beacon hills had been alone without Scott and the others now for nearly six months after the battle at the hospital, and they were handling things fine all things considered. Tonight of course they had been on a stake out in the middle of the woods, as you do, waiting for another attack from the new resident threat of the month. Witches. An entire coven of witches who had decided to migrate to Beacon hills to… well, they weren’t exactly sure why they were here yet, but Theo was certain that it was just to be difficult. Weird and quite frankly oddly specific curses had begun to befall numerous residents of the town, things like a girl who had graduated last year (Sydney her name was, he thinks) losing all of her hair, and one of the deputies suddenly being entirely unable to speak English. Yeah. oddly specific. And cases like this had only continued to increase. So here they were, under Deaton’s direction, waiting in the woods.

It was oddly peaceful in a way. Just sitting out the woods, in companionable silence with none other than Liam, who had been his partner by default in this and pretty much every other endeavour. He and Liam had become pretty close friends in the last six months and had each made fairly steady progress in their short time together; Liam with all of his anger, and Theo with pretty much all of the other feelings. For example, right now he was feeling, bored, or maybe content, or hungry he’s not entirely sure but progress is progress. Over the past months a lot had changed for Theo, for example, he was no longer living in his truck. After the hospital, it was surprisingly Derek who had tracked him down and offered him a place to stay (though Theo was almost certain this was less of an act of kindness and more of an act of fucked up atonement for some past mistake or another, but hey gift horses and such, plus Theo could certainly relate). He has been brought back to the loft, where Derek had given Theo one of the larger apartments, and a credit card linked to Peter (who was supposedly none the wiser)’s bank account.  
In this time Theo had also decided to go back to school and fulfil the rest of the class requirements for his high school diploma (which surprisingly had only consisted of Ap Bio, History, and English Lit). So he was now an almost constant figure in the halls of the high school, the cover story for his absence was something along the lines of a tragic family accident (which wasn’t entirely untrue), so he seemed to have the strangely suffocating sympathies of most of the student body. At least he was left alone for the most part. He wasn’t the biggest fan of the school itself considering pretty much every inch of the building set him on edge (especially the library where he refused to set foot for obvious reasons), but he did enjoy learning. Something about being stuck in the sewers reading only old war novels and occasional Shakespeare did that to a person. Of course biology was embarrassingly easy for him, which made him both oddly proud and ashamed, but he tended to struggle more with history and English Lit, which meant endless study sessions with Liam and Corey (Mason, like him, was much more of a maths wiz, than an ‘analyse hamlet in 1000 words’ wiz).

It was quite frankly confusing to Theo how domestic everything had suddenly become. He had a schedule, classes, study sessions, a job at the vet’s with Deaton, Friday night lacrosse games and subsequent sleepovers at his apartment. He was pretty much as close as he was ever going to get to having a normal life. In this time of course Mason and somehow Corey had both warmed up to him, or at least the concept of having him around. Theo often found Mason working on his homework and research at Theo’s kitchen table under the claim that his home was ‘quieter, and more peaceful’ than the library, but they both knew it had infinitely more to do with the fact that nobody in their little group could stand going in there. Mason and Theo were definitely companionable, they talked about maths, and science, and Mason asked endless questions about the supernatural. Friendship with mason was comfortable, and probably the closest to a normal friendship he had ever had. 

Corey was an entirely different story. While he also came over frequently to work (apparently the only good thing Monroe had ever done was put Corey onto creative writing), they never really spoke. The silence wasn’t necessarily uncomfortable, but he had a feeling it had more to do with there being too much to say rather than nothing at all. Corey however also came over in the middle of the night, more than anyone else (including Liam which was saying something). He knew why. They again didn’t talk about it, but he would sit next to Corey on his beat-up old couch in understanding anyway. It was more of an act of solidarity between the two then friendship. Being two of the three last of their kind in the world could be difficult sometimes. The feeling of something always being wrong with your own body could be the worst feeling in the world. Just knowing that you’d been tampered with, that something in your blood was foreign, that your DNA was essentially a contrived mess of different strands from different species was something that you didn’t ever really get used to. He knew the feeling, sometimes Tara’s heart beat just a little bit too perfectly like a machine, his joints would creak unnaturally, the cold would make his bones feel hollow and the metal that he knew was there in his hands and mouth would scrape ever so slightly against the bone. It felt wrong. Even his shifts felt more like an out of body experience than a conscious choice. Like the DNA didn’t quite fit, and the way his eyes changed didn’t quite reach the rest of his body in the almost primal way Liam and Scott and everyone else’s did. His full shifts felt more like he was possessing someone else’s body rather than changing his own. So when Corey showed up in his living room, staring at his hands in horror. he understood. He stayed.

Then finally of course was Liam. He and Liam probably spent the most time together, considering Liam practically lived in his apartment half the time. They studied history together, watched Tv, played video games, sometimes they would just sit on his couch and read books. It was nice. The strangest thing was how tactile they could be, often leaning all over each other, sitting with little to no space between them, getting pretty much as close to snuggling as they could be without actually spooning. That wasn’t to say they didn’t still fight and break each other’s noses on the regular. Liam usually got angry at him for being emotionally stunted or particularly stubborn, and Theo would usually get mad at Liam’s inability to take care of himself among other things. So they’d fight it out, one of them would fuck off, and then they’d both be back and apologising to each other within the hour. Which was coincidentally what had happened about 2 hours before they had headed out for the woods.  
Now here they were, he and Liam pressed up against one another waiting in silence, for something, anything to happen. It had been about four hours-worth of waiting, the cold settling deep within his bones before anything actually happened. Finally, at 2 am there was a noise, it sounded like a set of windchimes almost, tinkling and light and inexplicably menacing. Probably something to do with the impromptu light show that seemed to be occurring a few hundred feet away. Whatever it was, was almost blinding and before they could even think of a plan, He and Liam were barrelling full speed towards it.

Strangely the closer they seemed to get, the more the light began to fade to dim glow, they continued to run until they stumbled all but right on top of the Nemeton (because of course it would be involved in all of the ritualistic bullshit). Hiding quickly behind the bushes they looked on in morbid curiosity towards the group of women in front of them. A few of them were old, but the majority of them looked closer to Theo’s age, they were 18-21 at most. Excellent. Young witches. Most definitely holding some kind of grudge. Just perfect. Before either of the two wolves could think to make a move one of the women spoke, eyes glowing white, staring directly at them. Yeah, things were about to get complicated. Whatever she was saying was in some kind of Latin dialect that Theo vaguely recognised. Before he could react, Mason and Corey had jumped out on the other side of the clearing, seemingly trying to play distraction, the witch turned on them, still chanting, and with that Theo pounced. Propelling himself out of bushes a directly towards the woman, Liam directly on his tail, he was sprinting, heading in for a tackle of sorts but just as he was reaching his target she finished whatever it was she was saying.  
In a flash the world went white. Theo barely felt himself hit the ground before he blacked out.


	2. Burning Pile

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Corey thinks about Theo, The war, and everything that came after

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> all my troubles on a burning pile  
> all lit up and i start to smile

The first thing Corey feels as he’s waking up is the forest floor is discomfort. The sticks stabbing his back complementing the unrelenting cold of the damp dirt beneath him. The next thing he feels is panic. Shooting up from his spot on the ground, his back creaking and joints crackling as he does so, he looks around. Surveying the area, he sees the bodies of his friends strewn around him, Mason to his left, seemingly unharmed albeit laying at an awkward angle, and Theo and Liam to his right, in a tangled pile of limbs. All safe. All breathing. He takes a deep breath, and then another and finally begins to feel himself calming. The panic ebbing away and being steadily replaced with bitter frustration: nothing could ever be easy. The witches were gone, and by the looks of the rising sun above them, they had been for a while. As he lost himself in the overwhelming web of confusion, frustration, and discomfort, he neglected to notice the shifting and stretching of all of the bodies beside him. He’s only jolted from his thoughts as someone beside him (Liam, his mind supplies), places a hand upon his shoulder to ask if he’s alright. He says yes of course, but they both know he’s lying. On his other side Mason appears to be stirring, slowing sitting up and dislodging the twigs that had settled within his hair. They make eye contact for a moment, and Mason smiles softly at him, he smiles back, hoping that he carries the same sincerity (if Mason sees the smile wobble, he doesn’t mention it).

The last of them to wake up is Theo (although seeing the blood dried stubbornly to his forehead, he supposes it makes sense). Theo awakes with a start, jolting upwards, eyes crazed and body tense, he looks over at them, eyes wide open and unseeing. His breathing is coming in quick shallow pants, as he tries to take in the situation around him, chest heaving with the effort of it and his eyes flickered between green and yellow. To say it was unsettling would be putting it lightly. It takes a few minutes, and the intervention of an especially soft looking Liam for him to finally stop looking like he’s about to run away. He stiffens for another moment, before slumping back, eyes closing as he puts his head between his hands. He takes a few deep breaths before asking,

“What the fuck just happened?”

Corey doesn’t know how to answer. Apparently, Liam does, because after a pause he replies,

“They got away, dumbass.”

That was fair. Maybe a little harsh. But fair. Theo only looks up at Liam with tired eyes, seemingly deciding to let this one go, for once. Liam looks back in mock glare, that tries and fails valiantly to veil the concern practically bubbling under the surface of his skin. Theo also seems to know this as he waves Liam off with a near imperceptive quirk of his lip, as if to say, “Don’t worry about it.” Liam rolls his eyes in response, a clear, “we’re talking about this later”. Theo’s hands trembling, the only indication that any of this had occurred in the first place. Beside Corey, Mason clears his throat, suggesting they all start heading back towards Theo’s truck, and stipulating that they should probably swing by Deaton’s on the way home, after a quick glance at the dried blood covering the two wolves. After a few seconds to let this sink in, they all clamber to their feet (with about as much grace as Corey supposes you could expect from a group of teenage boys that were just knocked out by a group of formidable supernatural women), and begin to shuffle their way out of the small clearing.

By the time they’d reached the outskirts of the woods the sun was more firmly in the sky above them, signalling that it was roughly 8 in the morning, according to Liam ( who knew this due to something to do with the weird astrology phase he went through in junior year). As they reached their phones, tucked away in the glove compartment of Theo’s truck, they found that Liam wasn’t too far off, and by the time they’d all clambered into their respective seats it was roughly 8:45. The drive to Deaton’s was quiet and uneventful, Liam driving slowly (as he’d taken the keys from Theo’s still trembling hands, and gently but firmly guided him to the front seat), so as not to wake the now peacefully sleeping Mason who had slumped over into Corey’s lap, approximately two minutes into the drive. As he ran his fingers slowly through his boyfriend’s hair, Corey could only think about what had happened in the woods, and the haunted look on Theo’s face as he had woken up. Then he thought about Liam’s reaction. He’d calmed Theo down with such confidence, placing his hands on Theo’s face and helping him breath with an amount of calm Corey could barely fathom. Had this happened before? How often? For how long? Before he could continue to entertain this train of thought the truck pulled to a stop, right outside Deaton’s clinic. With a sigh, he delicately shook Mason awake, smiling apologetically at the disgruntled face of his boyfriend as they stepped out of the car, moving to stand behind Liam and Theo (who was being held steady with a hand on the small of his back), who waited for them at the clinic doors.

Deaton (as per usual) seemed to know exactly who and what he was dealing with the second he heard his doors open. He ushered them inside calmly, before setting his sights directly on Theo and Liam. As it had turned out, the blast of energy from the witches had hit them with greater force (which Deaton theorised was due to them being part wolf), than it had the other two. This resulting In numerous burns, and bruises between the two of them, (and in Liam’s case, three broken fingers, which the others were happy to scold him about for the next twenty minutes), and Theo of course had gotten a mild concussion. The strange thing was that Theo had as close to the level of werewolf healing, as any of the chimeras could get, and this type of thing certainly would’ve healed by now under most circumstances, however for the moment they had chalked it up to exhaustion. After wrapping the wolves up in gauze, taping Liam’s fingers, and making them all promise to wake Theo up every few hours to check on his concussion, Deaton had sent them all ‘back home’ to Theo’s apartment. 

The drive to Theo’s was equally as quiet as the journey there, with Mason now in the driver seat, regardless of Liam’s indignant protest that he could drive just fine. This left the wolves in the back seat, and over the drive Theo’s head had begun slowly gravitating towards Liam’s shoulder until the two of them were once again on top of each other (at least this time they seemed to be sleeping peacefully).The arrival to the loft was much the same, with Liam guiding Theo inside and Corey and Mason following not far behind them. After a gruelling 15-minute trek up all the stairs to the fifth floor (apparently Derek had a weird aversion to using the elevators), they had reached the comically large, industrial door to Theo’s apartment. 

Even though he had been in the apartment hundreds of times, the novelty of it being Theo’s had never quite worn off for Corey. Maybe it was the fact that it felt so lived-in, homely even, (a far cry from the previous and quite literal sewer dwellings that Theo was undoubtedly used to). Theo had constructed a perfect image of the home of the average 19 year-old living unsupervised : messy, unorganised, and filled wall to wall with displays of sentimentality. It hadn’t always been like this. It was originally just intended to be a place Theo came to sleep of a night, and it had looked it. The walls had been entirely empty, there was one set of basic cutlery in the kitchen, and two coffee cups. There hadn’t even been any furniture other than a mattress on the floor and an old crate to sit on in the living room. But after a few months and an extraordinary amount of effort from himself, Liam and Mason, the house had slowly become a home.

After the war, Theo was in no way shape or form their favourite person, but there was no debating that something had changed with him. They’d seen it in his attempts to help the pack, his constant protection of Liam, his refusal to kill hunters, and his interaction with Gabe at the hospital. However, they’d also seen it in the greasy hair, ill-fitting clothes (perfectly outlining too prominent ribs), inability to make unnecessary eye contact, and practically folded spine in the presence of any senior pack member. All of this had quickly led to the formation of Operation Raeken, mission status; rehabilitate, reintegrate, and redeem, (Liam had taken days on the title, so they let him have it). Summarised in three easy steps.

Step 1: Get Theo a home (completed easily with a tip off to one Derek-resident-bleeding-heart-Hale)  
Step 1A: Fill it 

They’d all thought this step would be equally easy, but after a few wrecked Ikea chairs they had discovered that it was more difficult than anticipated. They were going to have to do it without Theo knowing. Which of course had led to the god forsaken couch, Theo and Liam had now been confined to. It had taken an embarrassing amount of scheming on their part to figure out that if they just pretended Theo was doing them a favour by keeping something, he probably would (and maybe manipulating his insatiable need to atone for his actions was a little morally corrupt but hey, at least it was for his own benefit). Liam of course, just had to try out this technique with one of the ugliest, and most uncomfortable couches they had ever seen (Liam claimed that it was just to make the lie ‘believable’ but Corey didn’t believe him). The couch was made of pink leather, (pale, pale pink), with chunky embroidering, and seams, and the back of the chair was so lumpy by design that you couldn’t lean back on it. Theo, for some reason, had loved it. He hadn’t said so of course, but the fact that they had found him in an old thrift store trying to find matching blankets and throw pillows (like an absolute dork) had confirmed it enough.   
After that they had just kept bringing around old furniture, with some of Corey’s personal favourites including the massive dinosaur beanbag (where he currently took residence), the puke green corduroy armchair (currently holding mason) , and the coffin shaped coffee table (propping up Liam’s feet). None of it went together whatsoever (Theo had tried his best with the matching yellow and orange throw pillows, but they had only added to the chaos). Corey loved it. He was certain Theo did too (although it’s not like he has any other frame of reference). After a while Theo had begun filling the place himself, bringing home tables, weird antiques, novelty mugs, an ornate book shelf (which had soon been filled with pretty much every classical, cotemporary, and experimental piece of literature the group could lay their hands on), and a 70s style stain glass lamp. The apartment basically had a colour pallet that screamed 70s and a style to match. Mason has asked about it once, Theo had said it reminded him of his childhood home, a few photos from Stiles and Scott had pretty much confirmed this (they didn’t touch the topic with a ten-foot pole). So, they had completed the task of furnishing in two months, with the apartment beginning to look pretty damn close to a home, so what had been next you may be asking?

Step 2: Help Theo get back into the world

The thing about rehabilitating a previously emotionally repressed, borderline sociopathic chimera, was that there wasn’t really an easy 10 step program to personhood. The apartment had certainly aided in making Theo look and behave more human (access to food and hot water tended to do that to a person), but it didn’t really do anything at all for his, lets say social difficulties. Getting Theo back into school had been pretty easy; he was good looking, effortlessly charming, and extremely intelligent which meant people were willing to accept him fairly quickly. Theo had of course been able to catch up on almost a years-worth of missed work, in merely 3 months (though this had included far too many instances of Theo working himself to the bone for everyone’s liking). 

Essentially, everything on the educational and general popularity front had been fine, but the social aspect, oh boy. Corey had never seen anything quite like it. Theo was weird. Like kid-you-avoid-in-the-hallways, weird, not cute-quirky-weird. He had pretty much no actual filter around people their age, it was a pretty common thing to find Theo going from baring his fake-backstory soul to strangers only to find himself talking about biology again minutes later. That was the other thing. He never stopped talking about biology, and if not biology, then probably whatever book he was currently reading (always in excruciating analytical detail no matter what). Sometimes (and god help him for this), Corey found it quite endearing, watching him light up talking about his analysis of the way that Scout from ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ was “the most annoying protagonist on the planet”, but others even Corey could admit, it was too much. This had resulted in the world’s worst crash course in how to act at school lead by the one and only Liam was-a-social-pariah-less-than-a-year-ago Dunbar himself. Resulting in Theo simply deciding not to talk at school unless absolutely necessary.

After a considerable amount of trial and error they discovered that the key to getting Theo used to human interaction was to just hang out with him. They’d started by dragging him along to lacrosse games, and subsequent post lacrosse hangouts (which had soon just been relocated directly to Theo’s apartment). He seemed to enjoy having more of a social schedule, so Corey had elected that they start inviting him to more of their last minute hang outs at the local diner, which had led to him pretty much being invited to everything they ended up doing. Theo after roughly 4 months had successfully been integrated into their little group and seemed to be loving it. After a few of their group hangouts, they’d all discovered that Theo was kind of a sentimental bastard, who had taken to capturing as many photos of them all as possible, which had led to the creation of the photo wall. After noticing how many pictures Theo was taking of them all, Corey had pretended to notice that Theo might be developing an interest in photography and started asking if he was going to get photos printed. This had piqued Theo’s interest, and quickly led to the two of them having a weekly outing where they would print all the pictures of the week. Pretty soon Corey had encouraged Theo to start putting them on the walls and now there was a full wall pretty much covered in photos of Theo’s friends. But never pictures of Theo. Which had led to the next step, the one they were currently working on,

Step 3 please dear god get this man some self-esteem and maybe a therapist

Ok it was easier to just say it and get it out in the open. Theo was fucked up. Like down to the core, trauma and conditioning that will never be erased, fucked up. They had all been aware of this of course (See: Murder on multiple counts), but they had never seen the internal effects of all of Theo’s actions until they had all started going out together.   
The first instance of this overwhelming awareness had happened when they had all gone out to Sinema one night, fully prepared to just have a relaxing night out. Or they had been until a guy had apparently spotted Theo and decided to promptly deck him in the face, shouting inane profanities about “stealing” and not even being “that good of a slut”, which ok, alarming. Corey had been the first one to reach the pair and had dragged Theo up as Liam had hauled the man off him. He had taken Theo by the arm and dragged him outside to the curb. After cleaning the blood from around Theo’s broken nose and making sure his shirt wasn’t permanently stained, Corey had sat down beside him, not really sure what to expect, but it certainly hadn’t been for Theo to spontaneously burst into tears. He had taken to trying to comfort Theo fairly quickly after his momentary shock and had successfully calmed him down after about 5 minutes. After that Theo had explained that the man who had punched him “ Marcus” apparently, had been an ex ‘lover’ of Theo’s (not straight, jot that one down), although Theo had admittedly referred to it as more of a sex-cadpade. As the story continued however it began to sound less and less like and relationship, and more like a Theo-selling-his-body situation, with in depth descriptions of payments and empty motel rooms. All of which had made Corey (understandably) concerned, however even more concerning was the way that Theo described everything. At one point during the story where Theo was explaining the reason they even met up in the first place (which mind you, had been because the dread doctors were using Theo, using his body to get information), and Theo had said something along the lines of “ I was more excited to finally have a human connection,” in a tone that had damn near broken Corey’s heart on the spot. Descriptions like that had only continued throughout the story, Theo constantly referring to connections and feeling belonging when he was under the man. It was kind of horrific to hear him describe himself this way, especially as Corey reminded himself that Theo was still only 19, and the way it all sounded, this had been going on much longer. 

After this, Other instances of this unhealthy attitude towards sex had continued to pop up, with Theo coming home late often, smelling of cheap perfume and someone else sheets, or musky cologne and sweat all mixed together in a nauseating mist. The smells were often accompanied by a slew of bruises and a far off look in Theo’s eyes that Corey could never shake the disturbance of. One standout moment had been when Theo had stumbled into the apartment at 3am expecting to find it empty, only to walk into a group sleepover. His eyes had been glazed over, and his hands had been shaking. The buttons from his shirt were missing, it made Corey sick to think that they had been ripped. His hair looked wind-swept, his lips were swollen. Put simply he looked a mess, akin to a train crash even down to the way that none of them could tear their eyes off him. It took crystalline tears welling in his eyes for any of them to even register the situation fully. The second one escaped however they had all been quick to jump into action. Liam had reached Theo and gently wrapped him up in one of the softest hugs Corey had ever seen, Theo had stood frozen, but still seemed to lean into Liam. Corey himself had walked to the kitchen, intent on bringing Theo some water to help… with something. Mason had apparently disappeared to fetch Theo a blanket (one of the weighted ones most likely, indicated by Masons faltering steps). When they all converged again it was to find that Liam had guided Theo to the couch, and was now attempting valiantly to get Theo to make eye contact. Mason had approached first, (they had all noted the flinch when he had draped the blanket over Theo’s shoulders, but none of them had made comment on it). Corey had been next, gently handing Theo the water and giving his head a gentle pat as he made his way to the floor to sit beside him (Theo had a tendency to sit vigil for Corey, he felt it only right to return the favour). It had taken a while but after what felt like an eternity Theo cleared his throat. His voice was rough as he spoke, rasping an apology that had only managed to draw a sigh and hair ruffle from Liam and a head on his knee from Corey. He looked at them guiltily before explaining what had happened, an encounter with a woman who had wanted too much and was more than willing to steal it. it made Corey furious. As he looked around at the others he could see he wasn’t the only one. Liam looked murderous, seething with a level of rage only Liam could. Mason beside him held a more graceful anger, all neutral in the face, but cold and calculating in the eyes. Theo just looked sad. After heavy reassurances that the bitch was going to get what she deserved (courtesy of sheriff Stilinski), they had been able to coax Theo into joining their sleepover, placing him between the three of them as they watched the old barbie movies for a nostalgia trip. As the night went on, the tension released from Theo’s shoulders. But never the other three’s. 

One of the other things Corey had noticed was Theo’s strange, (and maybe even non-existent) eating habits. Admittedly Corey couldn’t be there every minute of every day to see him, but Corey was certain he’d seen Theo devour a cigarette more times than he’s seen him devour a meal. Now Theo wasn’t skinny by any means, but he also wasn’t very big either, not it the way that Liam and he were. Liam had decent abs with a still soft looking stomach, defined but not full muscle either. Corey himself was softer still, but much larger in the arms and just as strong. Theo was… small. He was strong sure, but maybe a little more lanky than Liam, slimmer and more agile. He had a tendency to wear baggy hoodies, but he never looked ashamed if he was caught with his shirt off (or even fully naked, courtesy of his full shifts). That was just another one of the mysteries that surrounded Theo. Who now that he was thinking about it, had started snoring rather loudly.  
Looking around him now, Corey realised that all of his friends were most definitely asleep. Maybe he should be too, but Corey was so wired that he couldn’t even pretend he wanted to nap. Maybe he could write more of his English Lit paper. 

He set to work quickly, absorbed in his work, but still keeping vigil for his friends as they rested (he would get his chance later, besides he was feeling strangely energetic this morning. As he worked through the mid-morning to early afternoon, the boys began to stir. First up was Mason, who had greeted him with a kiss and a strangely tight (almost painfully so) hug. His boyfriends soon began rambling on about something or other with the same newfound energy Corey felt. Liam didn’t follow suit, instead as he woke up, he looked almost weak. He complained mildly of a headache and a weak feeling in his body before bee-lining straight for the fresh pot of coffee that Mason had put on as he whined. He gave Mason a quick hug before downing the black sludge-like mixture in one go.

The last to wake up once again was Theo, who looked honestly worse for wear. He had dark bags under his eyes, and the hunch of his body was all they needed to see to tell he was suffering. He muttered something about ‘getting fresh air’ (which they all knew was code for “smoking now, leave me alone”) , and Corey heard all of his little mutters on the way up to the balcony. 

“he’s basically a walking ash tray at this point” Liam had remarked, as he went to follow Theo up anyway, probably off to grab a shower.

Corey heard Mason laugh behind him, before he heard a distinct ringing coming from a phone somewhere upstairs, followed by thumping and fumbling until he hear Liam yelling   
“Oh SHIT!!!”, followed by “The packs coming home next week”  
All Corey could think was, Oh shit indeed.


End file.
